ULVERSTON, market town, urban district, Lonsdale parlia mentary division, Lancashire, England, in the Furness district, 8 m. N.E. from Barrow-in-Furness, and 256 m. from London by the L.M.S. railway. Pop. (1931) 9,235. The church of St. Mary, founded in 1111, retains the original (Transitional) south door, but is mainly Perpendicular in style with an altar-tomb of 1588. Ulverston is second in importance to Barrow in the Furness district. Conishead Priory, 2 m. S.E., a mansion on the site of a priory founded in the reign of Henry II., is now a hydro pathic establishment. Formerly Ulverston had a considerable trade in linens, checks and ginghams, but is now dependent on iron and steel works, chemical works, breweries, tan-yards, and hardware, paper, and wooden hoop factories. Through its con nection with Morecambe bay by a ship canal, I m. in length, it has a shipping trade in iron and slates.
Ulverston, otherwise Vlureston, Olvestonum, occurs in Domes day Book, where Vlurestun is named as a manor in possession of Turulf, who was probably the original Saxon owner. Early in the
12th century the manor passed to Stephen, count of Boulogne, who gave it to Furness Abbey. In 1196 the abbot granted the vill of Ulverstone with the inhabitants to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfred, who granted it a charter and made it a free borough. The lord ship became divided. One part passed to the Harringtons and finally to Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, on whose attainder in 1553 it was forfeited to the Crown; the other, returned to the abbey at the dissolution, was surrendered to the Crown. Early in the 17th century the Crown alienated the manor, now in the family of Buccleuch. The yearly court-leet and court-baron are still held in October. In 128o Roger de Lancaster obtained a charter from Edward I. for a weekly market on Thursday and an annual fair of three days on the eve of the Nativity (Sept. 7).